


Once upon a night, I dreamed we'd be together

by Linisen



Series: BINGO for the 18+ On Ice Discord Server [2]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bingo On Ice, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Damnit Yuuri, Falling In Love, Fluff, Happy Ending, Kissing, Light Angst, M/M, Risking It All, Sleeping Beauty Elements, Sleeping Curse, Wingman Phichit Chulanont, You Only Live Once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 16:50:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20678702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Linisen/pseuds/Linisen
Summary: As Yuuri grows from child to teenager to man, never kissing anyone doesn’t bother him as much as he thinks it might do others. Sure, he turns down parties where he thinks there might be games involving kissing, and after a while he stops getting invited to them all together. It doesn’t matter too much, since he has something else he spends most of his time doing, even if he sometimes does feel lonely. He doesn’t really long to kiss anyone, and as he dedicates his life to dance, and later ice skating, he finds that mellows the coldness wrapping around his heart.The curse becomes even easier to deal with when Yuuri realises who he really longs to kiss, and that he’s never going to.Or. Yuuri gets cursed as a child that if he ever kisses someone he loves deeply, he'll fall into eternal sleep.





	Once upon a night, I dreamed we'd be together

**Author's Note:**

> Hi and welcome to my third piece for the 18+ on Ice Discord server event ‘BINGO’. The event contains of each participant getting a bingo card and then create as much content as they want for the prompts on it. My goal is to make a fic for all 25 squares in the card and you can find the rest of my fics for the event [here](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1482800) and for all for all of the participants at this [collection](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/18OI_Bingober_2019). A huge thank you to [Bearixt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bearixt/pseuds/Bearixt) for setting this up. Coming up with all the ideas have been so much fun, and it’s been great brainstorming them in the server with all you lovely people there. I adore all of you. 
> 
> The prompt that inspired this piece was 'You only live once' and it spiral into a sleeping beauty canon compliant fic idea. I hope you enjoy it. 
> 
> If you love YOI and you’re looking for an amazing place to hang out with, with some amazingly kind, warm and funny people you’re welcome to join the server by following this [link](https://discord.gg/TYMxcAB)
> 
> Beta done by the amazing [takeitoffhemmo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/takeitoffhemmo)

Yuuri doesn’t remember the first time he’s told the story. He isn’t even sure if he remembers the event himself or if he’s had so many nightmares about it that it feels like he does. He was too young, he’s convinced himself, to remember the day his entire life changed. To remember the magic drawing dark marks around his heart, painting it with cold spots. A curse that could never be cured, if Yuuri was not ready to risk everything to do so. When Yuuri’s 23, and standing before his first Senior Grand Prix Final, what Yuuri knows about the curse that’s affected everything, and nothing at all, is this:

When Yuuri was five, his sister had taken him to the beach just before dinner. It had been a warm spring day, and as the sun lowered, they ran back and forth in the shallows of the sea, laughing and playing. And then something tugged Yuuri under. 

Yuuri can still feel the echo of a hand gripping his wrist, a panic rising in his throat as he struggled for air, deep dark eyes looking back at him. Inhuman, calculating, vicious. It must just have been a minute, before someone grabbed his shoulder and ripped him from the water up onto the shore. The water creature followed, crawling as far as they came, nails like claws, their torso which was so much like a human’s, only covered in green and blue scales, glittering in the orange sunlight. Its lower body was a tail, much like an eel, and it spat and hissed as Mari rushed up with Yuuri on the sand. 

“Give him back,” the creature demanded, and Mari stopped and looked at them, hair lank and plastered to its head, eyes completely black. It seemed to try to push itself up on land, but hissed even louder as it came in contact with the dry sand, shaking it off it’s hand which blistered. Mari seems to relax at that, straightening as she looked back at the creature. 

“Never,” she said, and the being hissed again. 

“He’s mine,” they demanded and Yuuri pressed firmer into his sister's neck, heart pounding violently in his chest as he hid. He could still hear their voice, so many years later, how it rasped and hissed, sending shivers up his spine. 

“Mine,” they demanded again, but Mari simply said nothing, turning to walk away. A string of sounds, words, came from deep within the creature's throat, and Yuuri felt them lock over his heart, tighten his throat and he gasped, unable to breathe. Mari screamed as she noticed the change in her brother, and the being laughed, hollow and cruel. It was just for a moment, before Yuuri’s throat opened up again, lungs filling with air as he gasped. The cold remained over his heart, and he clutched at it over his soaked shirt, trying to will it away. 

“What did you do?” Mari demanded, unshed tears filling her eyes as she turned back to the creature. Yuuri turned back to look at them too, and they snaked their body in the water, eyes gleaming with mirth. 

“I put a curse on him of course,” they said, and Mari gasped. Magic was not something humans could control, but there were other beings in this world who could. Water beings were strong, and their curses could never kill, but they altered lives forever. “If I can’t have him no one else will either.”

“What does that mean?” Mari demanded. All the legends said that any creature who cast a curse had to disclose the nature of it to the one they’d damned, and it seemed the water creature intended to follow that. 

“He shall never be with the one he loves. If he falls in love and kisses them, he shall fall into eternal slumber and not wake until someone who loves him just as much kisses him back.”

“Take it away,” Mari demanded, tightening her grip around Yuuri who was still sucking in deep breaths of air. The creature simply laughed, slithering back into the ocean and vanishing. 

As proof of it all, Yuuri got a heart always shivering cold, no matter how much he gave or loved, and a small curse mark on the inside of his lower lip, in the shape of a delicate, dark rose. 

As Yuuri grows from child to teenager to man, never kissing anyone doesn’t bother him as much as he thinks it might do others. Sure, he turns down parties where he thinks there might be games involving kissing, and after a while he stops getting invited to them all together. It doesn’t matter too much, since he has something else he spends most of his time doing, even if he sometimes does feel lonely. He doesn’t really long to kiss anyone, and as he dedicates his life to dance, and later ice skating, he finds that mellows the coldness wrapping around his heart. 

The curse becomes even easier to deal with when Yuuri realises who he really longs to kiss, and that he’s never going to. Victor Nikiforov is ethereal as he moves across the ice, strokes sure, expression filled with emotions, every move graceful and sure. A natural on the ice they say. Once in a generation they call him. A living legend he’s dubbed. Yuuri soaks up all the information he can find about the other man, analyzes his skates with Yuuko, learns some Russian to read articles and watch interviews and practice Victor’s routines, that somehow always feels more right to skate than Yuuri’s own. He indulges himself in his crush, because it’s harmless. Yuuri is never going to kiss Victor, so he can fall in love with him all he wants. 

The first thing Yuuri thinks when he sees Victor for the first time isn’t that he wants to kiss him of course, but as he grows older and he imagines how it would feel to kiss someone, it’s always Victor he imagines kissing. Victor would cup his face with one hand, the other on Yuuri’s waist as he moves closer, beautiful blue eyes fluttering close, silver eyelashes resting on his high cheekbones as he pulls Yuuri to his chest, soft wet lips pressing against Yuuri’s own. It always sends a fluttering feeling all through Yuuri’s body, and a high blush appears on his cheeks. 

Yuuri fully starts mourning the curse two weeks before he’s set to leave for college in Detroit, at Yuuko and Takeshi's wedding. It’s not that he doesn’t wish them all the best, or that he still holds some feelings towards Yuuko he might have thought he held when they were little. It’s the realisation that he will never have this. Never share his life with someone. Never wake up everyday to someone who will kiss his lips and greet him good morning. Never have someone look at him like Takeshi looks at Yuuko. Never wear a matching band on his finger. The feeling pools uncomfortably in his gut, and instead of making a scene by getting Katsuki drunk and dance on a table like his father is halfway to doing, Yuuri steals a bottle of sake and sneaks out from the party, and walks down to the beach. 

He sits high up on the sand dunes, looking out over the dark sea. Is the creature still there? Are they still alive? How would Yuuri’s life have looked like, if Mari hadn’t pulled him up? Yuuri hasn’t been in the ocean since, and even if he considers it now, as he drowns gulp after gulp of burning alcohol, he doesn’t. He has a dream to chase, to stand next to Victor on the podium. To be a worthy opponent. To skate on the same ice. No sea monster or curse can take that away from him, they’ve already taken too much. 

  
  


Yuuri feels warmer than he has in his entire life. The cold always wrapping around his heart seems to have vanished the second Victor stepped into his outstretched arms. Yuuri laughs, as Victor’s bright and smiling face comes closer again as Yuuri spins him back into his embrace. Yuuri might have lost everything these last few days, the pet he loved more than anything, his career, his dignity, but right now he feels like it doesn’t matter, with how absolutely in love he feels. They must have been dancing for hours, the banquet slowly emptying as him and Victor sway to the slow music. Yuuri has no idea who put it on, but he has a vague memory of demanding a slow dance. He should probably feel embarrassed by that, but Victor is warm in his grip so Yuuri doesn’t care, as he feels the other man’s breaths ghosting over Yuuri’s neck above the shirt collar. His hand rests low on Yuuri’s back, fingers laced together in the hands they’re holding between them. This feels right, more than it should. More than anything has. Yuuri’s heart is beating violently in his chest and when someone comes to tap him on the shoulder and ask them to leave, there is no doubt in Yuuri’s mind that he can’t let Victor go.

“Can I come to your room?” Victor asks as they exit the room, hands still linked. “I just...I don’t want tonight to end yet.” Yuuri has his jacket and tie in his free hand and he nods with a smile, pulling Victor into the elevator with him. He has to look at his keycard to figure out which floor he’s on, but eventually they find it. Yuuri disposes of the contents in his hand and kicks off his shoes, and Victor removes his jacket, tie and shoes as well, unbuttoning his shirt. 

“You’re so pretty,” Yuuri says, hearing his voice slur a litte. He should probably try to find some water, if he wants to remember any of this tomorrow. Victor blushes, sweet, sweet pink on the bridge of his nose, and Yuuri longs to kiss it. He decides he should. He crosses the room in a second, resting his hands on Victor’s shoulders so he can rise on his toes, placing a soft and crooked kiss on the bridge of Victor’s nose. 

“You think so?” Victor asks, sounding almost breathless, and Yuuri nods, as he plants his face in Victor’s chest when he comes down, head spinning. 

“The prettiest,” Yuuri says, straightening, urgency suddenly filling him. “Did you know you're the only one I’ve ever wanted to kiss?”

“What?” Victor asks a soft laughter in his voice. 

“Yep,” Yuuri admits, popping the p. “You’re everything you know. You say so much with your skating, and you love dogs, and you look gorgeous. And you’re lips are really soft looking.” 

“Your lips are really soft looking too,” Victor says, moving a little closer. He’s still looking into Yuuri’s eyes, and Yuuri’s heart swells. So what if he’s cursed? So what if he sleeps forever? Victor is right here, so close, looking down at his lips like Yuuri’s always wanted him too. 

“Will you stay?” Yuuri asks, and Victor’s hands run down his arms, a soft caress that makes Yuuri shiver. 

“For as long as you want.”

Yuuri nods, fingers finding the buttons of his own shirt as he starts unbuttoning it. 

“Yuuri?” Victor asks, furrowing his brows, and Yuuri realises what he’s implying. 

“OH! No I- I mean...I just really want to hold you. In bed. If that’s alright?” Yuuri stutters out, and even if he’s drunk he knows that was embarrassing and maybe Victor will leave now. He probably should because Yuuri truly is a mess, but that doesn’t mean that what he just said isn’t true. If this is his last moments awake, he wants to hold Victor properly.

Victor doesn't leave. His expression turns soft, and he reaches for his own shirt, and starts unbuttoning it as well , that pretty blush on his nose spreading to his cheeks. 

“Okay, let’s go to bed then.”

They take turns in the bathroom, and when Yuuri comes out into the dimly lit hotel room, Victor’s already under the covers. He holds up one of the corners, and Yuuri crawls underneath it, settling on his side. 

“You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met,” Victor whispers, and Yuuri sighs into the praise. It’s like a dream. Maybe it is. Yuuri’s had dreams of Victor praising him and kissing him before. 

“You think so?” Yuuri asks, and Victor is looking at him in that way he never thought anyone would. Like Yuuko and Takeshi did that day at their wedding, like his parents look at each other. Like Yuuri’s something to cherish. Something to love. Yuuri presses himself closer to Victor, resting his hand on Victor’s naked chest as the other comes to cup his face. Victor’s hand is solid on his waist as it grips him and Yuuri wets his lips, eyes darting down to that perfect armors cupid’s bow he’s imagined kissing a hundred times. He shouldn’t. Yuuri knows he shouldn't. But he can’t help himself. One of his dreams were crushed this weekend. Maybe another can come true. You only live once. 

“Can I kiss you?” Yuuri asks as he meets Victor’s gaze, and then Victor’s lips are on his own. They’re just as soft as Yuuri imagined, and Yuuri presses into the kiss, sparks flying across his body as butterflies erupts in his stomach. Victor sighs, and Yuuri presses his lips more firmly against Victor’s, wanting to taste every sound, every breath. Victor’s tongue licks the seam of his lips, and Yuuri opens instantly, griping Victor tighter as he tilts his head to deepen the kiss. Yuuri’s never felt more whole than he does in this moment. They kiss and kiss, and Yuuri feels warm and loved and soon he’s drifting off into a deep, deep sleep.

Everything is dark. Dark and cold. The chilling sensation around his heart seems more prominent, pushed out into his entire body and it makes him shiver. Yuuri tries to push himself out of it, looking for that warmth that just embraced him. There’s no trace of it. Only darkness. 

There is something else there too. Yuuri doesn’t notice it at first, and even if he’s not sure time passes here, he finds traces of emotions scattered around him. Joy, hope, love, worry, loneliness, abandonment, fear, hollowness. Yuuri chases them, wants to stop the negative spiral from becoming darker. He’s feeling it all, and it’s making panic rise in his throat, but he’s also sure they're not his feelings. There someone else's, someone he adores, and that makes it even worse. 

Then, when the hollowness seems almost deafening, a spark of hope rises again. It brightens and guides a light and Yuuri follows that as it moves, his heart racing in his chest. It shines brighter and brighter and then it stops. It hovers as if unsure what to do, and then it explodes. 

  
  


Victor slips out of Yuuri’s hotel room as quietly as he can, a college hoodie with the letters ‘Wayne State University’ fading on the front of it, and his suit shirt and jacket in his hand. He hopes Yuuri won’t mind him borrowing his shirt, but Victor had no desire to make an obvious walk of shame even if it was just up three floors. As he got out of bed, he’d spotted the shirt and impulsively pulled it over his head. It smells like Yuuri, and Victor, being selfish and lovestruck, decided to borrow it. Yuuri can have it back when Victor starts coaching him.

Yakov always books the flight back to Saint Petersburg the morning after the banquet to ensure his students behave during the festivities, and it’s only this that pulls Victor form Yuuri’s sleeping form this morning. They had fallen asleep making out last night, and Victor had woken to Yuuri’s arms wound around him tight, sound asleep. Victor had carefully detangled, gotter ready as quietly as he could, and wrote a note with his number and the text ‘Early flight. I’ll miss you. Call me soon -V’ Victor had kissed Yuuri’s forehead once and then quietly slipped out. 

He’d been on cloud nine as he got into the car and later the airplane, not even Yuri’s grumpy mood and Yakov's yelling dampening his mood as his mind was exploding with ideas for choreography for Yuuri. He spent the entire plane ride looking at videos of his old skates, heart fluttering in his chest. The other skater was so much, such a contradiction, and Victor wanted to do his best to make sure Yuuri reached his full potential that he clearly wasn’t at now. 

The day passed, and there was no word from Yuuri. Victor felt a twinge of worry, checked the news to make sure nothing had happened in Sochi after they left, of plane crashes or anything else, but found nothing. Relieved he started unpacking, spending the day with Makka, giving her cuddles and long walks, telling her everything he could think of of the beautiful boy he met. 

They weeks went on, and as Victor’s joy and hope faded, it exchanged for fear and worry. Had Victor done something wrong? He searched his memory for anything he could have said or done to make Yuuri not want to contact him. He might have come on too strong. Was the note too much? He stalked Yuuri’s social media accounts, only to find he hadn’t posted anything since before the Grand Prix Final. Victor sends a message to his instagram anyway, just to check in, incase his note got bumped over or something. He gets no answer. 

Yuuri doesn’t post anything on social media, and a month later he doesn’t show up at Japanese nationals. The commentators, that Victor manages to find a subtitle for by scurrying the entire internet, says Skater Katsuki’s coach informed the organisers that he would not be competing and that the reason was highly personal. Victor’s stomach drops. What has happened? Where is Yuuri?

Victor’s worry brings him deep into fan blogs, where he luckily finds a link to Phichit Chulanont’s instagram, an instagram packed with Yuuri Katsuki content. The two seem to be roommates in Detroit. Every other picture the Thai skater posts seems to be of Yuuri, up until the banquet. Then nothing. Victor dives deep, reading comments from fans wondering where Yuuri is, asking if he’s okay. Phichit seems to be brushing it under the carpet, not commenting on it or joking about it. No real evidence to be found. This is becoming curiouser and curiouser and Victor is becoming obsessed as he continues to search. Was Yuuri just a dream? A figure of his imagination? Victor can’t seem to shake this feeling that something is wrong. Yakov tells him to give up this crazy obsession, Yuri calls him insane, Mila gives him puzzled looks and Georgi sympathetic glances. Victor can’t stop himself nonetheless. He takes care of Makka, he searches for Yuuri in any way he can, and he skates. 

Choreography rushes out of him, inspiration strong. It’s so easy, the uninspired ideas he was harbouring before the Grand Prix vanished as memories from the banquet guide him. He skates until he’s exhausted, until his legs are trembling with exhaustion, and then he runs home before he takes Makka on a long walk, making sure he’s used every ounce of his energy as his head hits the pillow, because otherwise he knows he’s going to toss and turn and not get any sleep. He’s been seeing Yuuri’s dark eyes, filled with joy and adoration, as his closes his own. Seen his sleeping form, felt his phantom warmth under his hands. Victor knows he’ll drive himself mad if he lets himself sink into the memories again, as he has so many nights before. It’s been three months since the Grand Prix final, and Victor is at a loss for what to do.

He's pulled out of sleep by his phone ringing, loud and startling. The clock tells him it’s four AM, and it’s an unknown number on his screen. An american number, Victor’s phone provides. His heart jumps in his chest and he scrambles to answer, his voice thick with sleep. 

“Yuuri?”

“Bitch, did you kiss my best friend unconscious?” an unfamiliar voice from the other side of the receiver asks, and Victor sighs as he slumps back into the mattress. Not Yuuri. Probably a prank caller. It’s been a while since someone leaked his number. He’ll have to change it again then. But then, how will Yuuri call him? Victor sighs again as he feels his eyes burning. If it’s from unshed tears or from exhaustion, he does not know. He should hang up. He doesn’t have the emotional stability to deal with this right now. Instead he sighs again, and stares up at the ceiling above his bed. 

“The only person I’ve kissed seems to have fallen off the face of the planet,” Victor answers. The caller sucks in a breath, and then a low chuckle can be heard on the other side of the receiver. 

“No, he just fell asleep.” 

“What?” Victor asks, rubbing his eyes because that’s a very strange answer. But then again, this entire thing is insane. Victor’s entire life seems to have tilted on its axis. 

“You kissed Yuuri Katsuki, right? Or he kissed you? At the banquet?” the caller asks, and Victor furrows his brows. He hasn’t told anyone about the kiss. If this person knows about it, Yuuri must have said something. They accuse Victor of kissing their best friend. Could this be someone who knows Yuuri?

“Yes,” Victor confirms, heart rate picking up. 

“Good. Or not good but a start,” the boy says, words rushed. “I’m Phichit Chulanont. I’m Yuuri’s best friend.”

“What?” Victor asks again, adrenaline spiking again as he sits up abruptly. “You’re Phichit? Where’s Yuuri? Is he okay?”   
Phichit sighs, and it sounds like he’s sitting down as the call goes quiet. Victor shifts on the bed, sitting up straighter as he tries not to vibrate out of his skin. This is the first sign of anything that has to do with Yuuri in months. 

“Yuuri’s in Japan with his parents…,” Phichit starts but trails off and Victor wants to shout in frustration. What could possibly be so hard to say? “He- something happened and....Victor how is Russian culture on magic?”

“Magic?” Victor asks, trying to figure out if this is actually a dream. “I- my grandmother was a firm believer. Said she had a troll in the backyard when she was a kid who put hexes on anyone who treated her badly. Why?”

“It’s a bit strange, but I need to ask you a few things, okay?” Phichit says, and Victor is getting more concerned by the second. Has something really happened to Yuuri? Has someone hurt him? Magic isn’t really something that’s discussed anymore. There are those who claim there are magical beings living in this world, but they are rarely seen. Victor has never see one himself.

“Okay?” Victor says, suddenly starting to wonder if this is actually a prank call after all. Phichit does have a connection to Yuuri however, and Victor is not ready to let that go yet, even if this is just some cruel joke. 

“Good. Ehm, so… at the banquet Yuuri kissed you, yes?” Phichit questions, but his tone displays he already knows the answer. 

“Yes,” Victor confirms. “Did he tell you? I haven’t been able to get in contact with him since and he wasn’t at his competition-,”

“I know,” Phichit interrupts. “What happened next?”

“Next?”

“After he kissed you?” Phichit clarifies, and Victor furrows his brows. It feels tainted, to go into detail about something like this. It was one of the most thrilling experiences in Victor’s life, to lay there next to Yuuri in that bed. To kiss and be held. To dance at the banquet. It gave him the same rush he felt the first time he landed his quad flip. To talk about it with someone he doesn’t know, without even knowing how Yuuri feels about it.

“I don’t know if that’s something I should disclose to you,” Victor says slowly, and Phichit lets out a low whistle. 

“Oh wow, way to go Yuuri!”

“I’m sorry?” Victor asks, anger suddenly filing his body. 

“Ah! No!” Phichit protests, but Victor cuts him off. He’s too wired up, his emotions unbalanced and his heart bleeding. 

“He was drunk! I would never take advantage like that!” Victor protests, memories of that night washing over him again. Yuuri’s hand around his waist as well as the champagne bottle. How much Victor wanted to do more but resisted. Yuuri was far too precious for a drunken fooling around. Victor wanted their first time to be more than that, how ever silly that sounds. 

“Sorry I just!” Phichit starts, seemingly taking a calming breath before he continues. “I just… he’s had the biggest crush on you forever, I didn’t mean any disrespect.”

That makes Victor pause. Yuuri had said incredibly sweet things that night, but for his best friend to confirm it. “Really?”

“Really,” Phichit repeats. “His bedroom wall in the dorm has like.. One, two… eight posters of you. I can barely see the wall.”

“Oh,” Victor says, stomach flipping in the most wonderful way. He glances at the two posters of Yuuri that’s framed next to his bed and smiles. Eight huh? He has some catching up to do. 

“Yeah, so…” Phichit sighs. “I know it’s weird, but I need to know. Not details just. What happened?”

So Victor tells. Reveals everything that’s been playing on a loop in his mind since that night. Tells him about the dancing and laughing and Yuuri’s wonderful voice and eyes. About the hotel room, and Yuuri’s tender gaze and sweet caresses. How they got ready and crawled under the covers, how they kissed and kissed until they feel asleep. How he woke up in Yuuri’s embrace. How he had to leave but left a note. How he hasn't been able to stop thinking about him since.

“This might be a bit presumptuous of me,” Phichit says, voice much softer than it was before. “But could it be that you might have some strong feelings towards Yuuri? Might even be in love with him?”

Victor's breath catches, because he hasn't let himself think that. The idea hurts too much, that his love would be this ignored, that Yuuri would have simply left him behind. He lets out a stuttering breath and looks down into his lap. He knows it’s true though. Knows it in his entire being. 

“Yes,” he whispers, the word feeling like it’s filled with dynamite. 

“Wow,” Phichit says just as quietly. They both sit in quiet for a while and Victor wonders what he’s going to do now. “Victor...would you come with me to Japan?”    
“To see Yuuri?” Victor asks to confirm, heart flipping at the prospect. He doesn’t know what could have happened. The conversation with Phichit is so strange, filled with holes and half explanations. Still, there is nothing Victor wants more. 

“Yes, to see Yuuri.”

“Is he okay?” Victor asks, even if he sort of knows the answer. Something is clearly wrong, otherwise Phichit wouldn’t be calling and asking these things. Victor can only hope it’s not too severe. Too late.

“No… no he’s not,” Phichit confirms, and the tears that's been burning in Victor’s eyes start to quietly fall. 

“Would he… do you think he wants to see me?” he asks, locking his jaws to not let out a sob. 

“More than anyone else in the world.”

Victor is aware that this might be the most impulsive thing he’s ever done. He knows it as he takes Makkachin to the sitter, kissing her and rubbing her ears while he whispers endearments. If he has to stay in Japan he’ll send for her, but he doesn’t want to bring her if it’s potentially dangerous. 

He knows it as he packs and when he drives to the airport. He knows it when he texts Yakov to tell him he’s leaving for a while. The skating season is over, and even if Victor has a few ice shows booked in a few weeks time, he claims to need a vacation. He turns off his phone as soon as he’s sent the message, with no intention of turning it on any time soon. He left another number with the dog sitter, the same number he’s given Phichit and that’s the only phone he intends to use until he’s gotten to the bottom of what’s happened to Yuuri. 

The flight is long and Victor has doubts the entire way. Phichit wouldn’t tell him what had happened to Yuuri, and Victor’s not sure how him coming to Japan can help, but he desperately wants to, which is crazy in it self. He may have spent the best night in his life with Yuuri, but it was just one night. And now he’s flying across the world for a man who, according to his best friend, is ‘not okay’. What has Victor gotten himself into? 

Phichit meets him at the airport, just landed himself and it’s an awkward greeting before they gather their luggage and head for the train that’s going to take them to Yuuri’s small hometown, Hasetsu. Victor researched it when he was deep in fandom blogs about Yuuri, so he knows more than he guesses half the population of the town does. Only when they’ve sat down in an empty cart does Phichit bring Yuuri up, and the story coming from him feels like something taken from a fairy tale, or a nightmare.    
“They didn’t tell me at first…,” Phichit starts, looking down into his lap. “They didn’t know I knew.” He looks up then, brows furrowing for a second as if contemplating how to choose his words, before he continues. “Yuuri was cursed as a child, by a… in Thailand we call them something akin to sea nymph. There was one that tried to take him and when it couldn't they cursed Yuuri to never be able to kiss someone he was in love with, because then he’d fall into eternal sleep.”

Victor’s body chills, and suddenly the kisses they shared seems so much more important. Yuuri kissed him while still knowing this would happen? He risked the rest of his life for just a kiss with Victor? It leaves Victor’s mind spinning as he tries to come to terms with it, all the while Phichit continues. 

“Yuuri didn’t tell me at first. I understand, it’s strange. Not many are cursed today, with how the magical beings stay away from humans. I found it weird that he never wanted to go out to party, we were in college after all, but he was shy and I accepted that. It took over a year before he told me about it. I’m not sure he’d told anyone about it before me. I know his family knows, but that might be it,” Phichit says with a small smile on his face, and Victor realises that maybe Yuuri doesn’t open up easily. That being given the privilege of his trust is something much greater than with many others.

Victor tries to stop the spinning of his mind to pay attention. He’s been longing for any information about Yuuri, and now he’s getting so much of it. His heart soars, but at the same time it hurts. Victor barely remembers the first person he kissed, probably someone in elementary school or junior high. He’s kissed countless lips through the years. People he’s been in love with, people he didn’t know the name of. Friends, lovers, strangers. None of them felt as right as Yuuri, and for Yuuri it was his first and only kiss.

“We talked about it a lot through the years, how he probably could kiss someone, if he wasn’t in love with them, without falling under the curse. Yuuri never wanted to risk it, and he also felt like it would be a tainted kiss, as if it would be so close to something he might want but could never have. I always joked that it didn’t matter, he was clearly in love with you. The curse mark was even a dark rose, just like your blue roses. It was like it was fate,” Phichit laughs, but it sounds laced with pain, and Victor feels it to. It’s almost too much and too real, that Yuuri gave this to him after just one night, and that he didn’t explain it to Victor at all. Did Yuuri hope he wouldn’t fall under the curse? Did he know he would? Did he not care?

“Ciao Ciao found Yuuri the day after the banquet. He couldn’t wake him and after calling an ambulance he called Yuuri’s parents to inform them. They understood right away what had happened. They brought him home to Hasetsu as soon as they could. I begged Ciao Ciao to tell me what happened when he came home without Yuuri, and only after being able to come in contact with Yuuri’s sister Mari was I able to find out. I immediately realised it had to be you. Yuuri would never have kissed anyone, drunk or not, would never have had risked it, unless it was you. I also believed the curse wouldn't have activated if it wasn't you so…,” Phichit shrugs, small smile on his lips. His entire demeanor is so different from the bubbly person he is on his social media, his mood clearly dampened by the possible loss of a best friend. 

“So you’re saying that Yuuri’s asleep now? And has been since I left him in that hotel room?” Victor asks, just to make sure he’s understood this correctly. There’s really no use in questioning Phichit’s story now that he’s here. He might as well go along with it. 

“Yes,” Phichit confirms with a nod, resting back against the backrest as he watches Victor. His grey eyes are intense, gaze strong. 

“Is there a way to break it?” Victor asks, almost scared to do so. He doesn’t know why Phichit has brought him here, only to watch the man he fell in love with sleep? To see with his own eyes that all he dreamed for them will never come true? It sounds like just as big of a torture as never knowing. Phichit doesn’t answer, because the train comes to a stop and they have to get off. The platform is empty, and they walk down stone steps, Phichit looking until he seems to spot someone he recognises. He grabs his bags and hurries forward, and Victor follows. It’s a woman, dyed blond hair, red bandana pushing it out of her face. She’s smoking, resting against the side of a large van. Her lips twitches up as he spots them in something that could have been a smile. 

“Mari!” Phichit calls, and Mari nods in acknowledgement as she puts out her cigarette against the sole of her shoe, before pocketing it and turning to them. 

“Phichit,” she says with a nod, and Phichit beams, before she turns toward Victor. Her eyes narrow for a second as she looks at his, and Victor tries his most carefree, charming smile. It doesn't work at all, since all it seems to do is make Mari frown. 

“Hi!” Victor tries, and Mari furrows her brows. 

“I can’t believe he was stupid enough to kiss you,” she simply says before she sighs, pushing herself off the side of the car and walking around it to get in. Phichit laughs, and Victor lets out a breathless one as well, because Victor wonders why Yuuri did it too. Why he risked it when he’d resisted for so long. Why Victor? 

They loaded their luggage into the back of the van before jumping in, and Mari drives them out of the station with sure motions, as if she’s done it a million times. 

“Do you know?” she asks as soon as they’re on the road, turning towards Victor who’s in the front passenger seat. Victor nods in agreement and Mari hums, glancing back toward Phichit who's staring out the window from the back passenger seat. Victor looks at her, trying to find some resemblance between her and her younger brother. They’re very different. Victor searches for any similarity in them, but comes up short. 

“Phichit filled me in, about the curse,” Victor answers and something dark and painful crosses Mari’s expression. He wonders if she was there that day Yuuri got it, or if the pain is simply from fear of never seeing her brother awake again. 

“Do you believe him?” she asks, voice tight as she keeps her eyes on the road.

“Either that or this is the biggest prank I’ve ever fallen for,” Victor admits. He feels Mari’s eyes on him, and as he looks back at her she scoffs, corners of eyes crinkling up into a smile. 

“Yeah, I can agree with that,” she says, and even if her posture is still stiff, her shoulders have relaxed slightly. “I really wish it was a prank.”   
“I just want to see Yuuri,” Victor admits. He supposes there’s no use in hiding it. He flew all the way to Japan to see someone who hasn’t called, hasn’t answered his messages in months. It’s not like he’s got anything to lose by admitting it. It’s pretty obvious at this point. 

“Alright. That’s something,” Mari says agrees. Phichit is quiet behind them, and they continue to travel down cracked asphalt roads. The scenery is probably beautiful, but Victor can’t seem to concentrate on it right now. 

“Can it be broken?” he asks, and he can see Mari stiffen again, shifting in her seat but keeps her eyes on the road. 

“Yes,” she starts. “By someone who’s in love with him too. If someone loves him just as much as he loves the person he kissed and fell under the curse for, if someone like that kisses him, he’ll wake.” 

Realisation hits Victor like a brick wall, and he looks back over at Phichit who’s still staring out the window and then back at Mari who’s clenching her fists around the steering wheel, as if holding back from asking him if he does. If he loves her brother as much as Yuuri loves him. Victor’s here to try to break the curse. He has no idea how to take that in. 

Love...does he love Yuuri? Can he? After only one night and then endless social media stalking for months? There is something, something he’s never felt for anyone, buzzing in his stomach and in his veins, bubbly and bright, but bleeding and hurtful as it went unanswered. Is it love? Victor thinks that it is, but who is he to judge, and who decides that when it comes to curses? Victor’s scared of the answer, just like he can see that Mari is, because what if it isn't enough? 

The car pulls up to a large building, and Victor and Phichit are ushered into it by Mari, who insists on taking their luggage. They’re greeted by Yuuri’s parents, who are so familiar with them both it makes Victor’s heart ache. Hiroko and Toshiya are kind and attentive people, and for the lack of Yuuri he couldn’t see in Mari, it’s all there in Hiroko. The same eye color, the same nose, the same slope of her cheeks. It makes Victor’s stomach twist. 

They’re placed at a table, food better than any Victor has ever tasted, katsudon, Yuuri’s favourite, presented for them. It’s a stilted conversation, everybody clearly on edge. Victor has so many questions, but doesn’t know how to ask any of them. Instead, there are stories being shared, stories of Yuuri’s youth and his skating, Phichit filling in from college and current competitions. Victor soaks it all up. Every story and fact, and with each of them something flutters warmly in his chest. 

They get pushed into the hot springs to wash up after dinner, and even if the water feels heavenly, there’s an urgency under Victor’s skin, somewhere he needs to be. After they’ve washed up, they’re handed Yutopia’s green robes, and are shown to their room by Yuuri’s mother. 

“Tomorrow,” she says her eyes drifting to the side for only a second, further down the hall. “Tomorrow you can see Yuuri?” 

She doesn’t asks what they are both thinking. ‘Tomorrow can you kiss my son?’ ‘Tomorrow can you break his curse?’ ‘Tomorrow, can you prove you love him as much?’ 

“Okay,” Victor says with a weak smile, and Hiroki answers in kind, patting his cheek warmly before leaving him in a large empty room, a single futon rolled out on the floor. Phichit got a room on the other side of the building, and Victor is glad for it, because he feels like he needs to gather his thoughts alone. He feels restless. Maybe it’s the jet lag, maybe it’s the pressure of tomorrow. Maybe it’s knowing Yuuri is finally so close. 

He pushes himself up from the floor and decides to walk further down the hallway to the door there. There’s a soft light coming from underneath it, and it feels right to place his hand on the handle and push it open, like there’s something inside it calling him there. 

He realises why immediately. In the middle of the small room stands a bed, all the other furniture pushed up against the walls. The walls are covered in posters of him, far more than eight, and on the bed rests the most beautiful boy in the world. The ink black hair rests softly around his face and spreads on the pillow like a dark halo. It's longer now than it was three months ago, and Victor guesses no one cuts someone who’s sleeping hair. He longs to push his fingers through it, just like he did all those months ago. Yuuri looks just like when Victor left him in that room otherwise. His chest rises and falls, his expression relaxed and lips slightly parted. His skin looks a bit paler in the dimly lit room, and Victor walks closer to get a better look at him. His heart is hammering in his chest as he kneels next to the bed, right next to Yuuri’s head, watching his long eyelashes fan out over high cheekbones that slope to soft cheeks and a sharp jaw. He’s breathtaking. Victor feels things for him he never felt for anyone before, and the idea of never seeing his deep brown eyes again, never see him laugh or dance or skate is too painful to bear. 

Victor leans closer, hand coming up to carefully push Yuuri’s hair out of his face. Yuuri doesn't stir, and it makes Victor’s heart bleed in his chest. He takes a deep breath and pushes himself more upright, placing one arm over Yuuri’s head before he carefully leans down and press his lips against Yuuri’s.

Yuuri’s lips are soft and warm, and Victor can feel tears start to burn in his eyes as Yuuri stays motionless, small puffs of air grazing his lips as he starts to pull back. 

  
  
  


Warm lips press against his own, and it’s such a lovely feeling that Yuuri has to grip the one above him tight to pull them closer. He knows who it is. The memories are a bit jumbled, but Yuuri remembers dancing, he remembers kissing, he remembers how beautiful Victor looked in his embrace, how alive he was. Yuuri remembers joy and love and sorrow and hurt, and he remembers an aching hollow feeling of wanting Victor close, as if he was too far away. 

He tightens his grip, an arm wrapped around Victor’s waist he realises, pulling him closer so he won’t go again. Victor follows, the weight on the bed shifting until it’s dipping on both sides of him, and Victor’s resting above him. Perfect. Warm hands cup his face. It feels nice, and Yuuri can’t help but let out a small hum in contentment, all the hollowness bleeding out of him with every move of Victor’s lips against his own, every touch of his hands on Yuuri’s skin. Unfortunately, this makes Victor break free from him, and he can feel him trembling as Yuuri slowly opens his eyes to see what’s going on. Victor’s bright blue eyes are wet, and as they meet Victor’s tears starts to drip down onto Yuuri’s cheeks. He’s even beautiful when he cries, but Yuuri never wants him to. 

“Victor,” Yuuri whispered, his voice sounding hoarse and raspy, as if he hasn’t used it in forever. Victor laughs, wet and sobfilled, smiling but with tears still streaming down his cheeks. Yuuri reaches up and tries to wipe them away, to make them stop flooding Victor’s pretty face. He doesn’t understand. Everything feels hazy, but the hollow feeling in his chest is gone, the cold that’s always been wrapped around his heart vanished. 

“Yuuri,” Victor answers, pressing closer to hide his face in Yuuri’s neck, sobbing for a moment before he straightens, trying to wipe the tears away quickly as he takes shaky breaths. He’s barely gotten half of them before he leans down again, pressing his lips against Yuuri’s with urgency. Yuuri answers the kisses softly, pressing his lips against Victor’s as butterflies erupt in his stomach. He feels complete like this, as if a piece he was missing is suddenly in place. 

“I missed you,” Yuuri whispers when they break apart, and Victor laughs again, wet and amused, but without sobbing. 

“You missed me? Are you crazy! I missed you! Way to play had to get Mr.-You-Have-To-Fly-To-Japan-To-Break-My-Sleeping-Curse-Katsuki,” Victor answers, and as he does shock fills Yuuri’s body, pressing himself up on his elbows as he looks around the room. Familiar decor stare back at him, and Yuuri’s stomach drops. They’re not in a hotel room in Sochi. They’re not in Russia at all. 

“We’re in Japan,” he states as he takes in his childhood room, posters of Victor decorating the walls, his desk pushed against his wardrobe, his bed strangely standing in the middle of the room instead of pushed against the right wall. “What happened?”

It all feels like a blur, Yuuri tries to connect how they ended up here. He can’t. His memories aren’t his own, and all he can see and feel feels like someone else's. He remembers skating, and searching, and hope and despair twisted together. The pieces fall slowly, and as they do he realises they’re Victor’s memories. Victor’s feelings, tangled with his own. 

“It seems I kissed you so good I knocked you out, “ Victor teases, but his eyes look calculating and worried. Yuuri’s mind still feels foggy, but then it hits him.

“I kissed you,” he says, the memories of the banquet and the hotel room washes over him more clearly, together with the mention of the curse. “I kissed you and I activated the curse.” His hand comes up to grip at his shirt above his heart, the coldness completely gone. Victor’s seated in his lap now, and he wraps his arms around Yuuri’s shoulders and leans forward, pressing his forehead against Yuuri’s as he nods, still slightly trembling. 

“You did,” Victor confirms. Yuuri’s hands release his own shirt to grab Victor’s waist, an anchor in a storm. 

“How long has it been?” Yuuri asks, and Victor sighs as he pushes back, arms still resting on Yuuri’s shoulders. 

“Three months, one week and three days,” Victor says, and Yuuri’s body goes cold. Three months of sleep means missed college classes, missed nationals, missed Four Continents and Worlds. It means worried family and Phichit and Celestino. Dread fills Yuuri because he realises he didn’t really mean to activate the curse. All he wanted was to kiss Victor, to be with Victor. Victor who’s now sitting in his lap, eyes red from crying. Victor who kissed him and then Yuuri woke up and…oh. 

“You broke it?” Yuuri asks, even if it’s more of a statement. He watches Victor in wonder because surely that can’t be true? Surely it must be some sort of mistake because that means…

“I did,” Victor agrees, pressing closer as he does. “I was so scared I wasn’t going to be enough,” he says as he shifts closer to press his lips against Yuuri’s again, and again and again, making Yuuri giggle. “I’m so happy I did.” 

“Me too,” Yuuri agrees. He should be freaking out, but it seems the feelings they shared during these months seems to have quelled some of his worries. He felt how much Victor cared, how he longed for Yuuri, how hollow he felt without him, just like Yuuri did. He never thought he would find someone who could love him so strongly they could break the curse, and now the man of his dreams is sitting in his lap and has just done that. It fills Yuuri with urgency and he gips tightly at Victor’s neck, pulling him down into the bed with him. He wants to savour this, wants to indulge in Victor, for as long as he can have him. 

“You still looking for a coach?” Victor asks later, lips red and kiss swollen. Yuuri pecks at them again, and at his cheek, because it’s like he can’t seem to stop. They're still in bed, arms wrapped tightly around each other. Yuuri hums into Victor’s skin in answer, and Victor’s fingers tangle in the hairs on the nape of his neck, the other hand splayed underneath his shirt, low on his back. “You looking for a boyfriend too?”

Yuuri straightens a little at that, making sure to look Victor in the eye as he speaks. 

“No, I just want you,” he says with determination. “I just want you, like this, forever.”

“Forever it is,” Victor agrees with a smile, pushing Yuuri back into the mattress with more kisses. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think in the comment section or on other platforms like:  
[Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/linisen) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/mjaoue)


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